Mental, social, and physical well-being in New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington, 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System: implications for public health research and practice related to Healthy People 2020 foundation health measures on well-being

24 Sep 2013

Background:
Well-being is now accepted as one of four cross-cutting measures in gauging progress for Healthy People 2020. This shift to population indicators of well-being redresses notions of health that have focused on absence of illness (negative health) as a primary or sufficient indicator of positive functioning. The purpose of this study was to estimate mental, social, and physical well-being in three US states using new measures piloted on the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey System (BRFSS). Baseline estimates were provided for states overall, and within states for demographic subgroups, those with chronic health conditions or disabilities, and those with behavioral risk factors.
Methods:
Ten validated questions designed to assess mental (e.g., satisfaction with life, satisfaction with life domains, happiness), physical (e.g., satisfaction with energy level), and social dimensions (e.g., frequency of social support) of well-being were selected with state input for inclusion on BRFSS. 18,622 individuals responded to the BRFSS surveys administered by New Hampshire (N = 3,139), Oregon (N = 2,289), and Washington (N = 13,194). Multivariate adjusted proportions of positive responses to well-being items were examined.
Results:
After adjustment for confounders, about 67% of adults in these states had high levels of well-being, including >80% reporting experiencing happiness. Most adults were satisfied with their work, neighborhood, and education, but significant differences were seen in subgroups. Well-being differed by demographic characteristics such as marital status, health behaviors, chronic conditions, and disability status, with those who reported a disability and smokers consistently experiencing the worst well-being.
Conclusions:
Well-being is accepted as one of four cross-cutting measures in gauging progress for Healthy People 2020. Well-being differs by important sociodemographic factors and health conditions (e.g., age, employment, smoking, disability status). These findings provide baseline estimates for the three states to use in gauging improvements in well-being and can serve as a model for other state-level or national surveillance systems. These findings also assist states in identifying vulnerable subgroups who may benefit from potential interventions such as those in the National Prevention Strategy that focus on enhancing well-being where such disparities exist.

Latest spotlights

Poster "Lifetime financial cost of childhood obesity on the island of Ireland" presented at the 6th ASOI Annual Conference

The 2018 meeting was held on the 14th of May 2018 in association with the Division of Population Health Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This year the focus was on the environmental determinants of food consumption and obesity.

Professor Kevin P. Balanda from the Institute of Public health was delighted to present a poster on the Lifetime financial cost of childhood obesity on the island of Ireland.

International Men’s Health Week (MHW) will run from Monday 11th until Sunday 17th June 2018. It is celebrated in many European countries, as well as in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The overall aims of MHW are to:

Heighten awareness of preventable health problems for males of all ages

Support men and boys to engage in healthier lifestyle choices / activities

Encourage the early detection and treatment of health difficulties in males.

Everyone is encouraged to work together to do at least one small practical thing to improve their own health and the health of men across the island. People in Ireland are also being asked to do something out of this world.

The Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland (ASOI) will hold its 2018 Annual Conference on May 14th 2018 in association with the Division of Population Health Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The conference will take in the main campus of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 123 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2.

This year the focus is on the Environmental determinants of food consumption and obesity. Send your abstract to be in with a chance to win the ASOI Award for best submitted abstract (see abstract submission details below).

Society for Social Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting & European Congress of Epidemiology 2019

The Society for Social Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting (the UK’s leading population health conference) takes place in Glasgow in 2018. It is being organised by colleagues from the University of Glasgow and the wider public health community in Glasgow.

The SSM 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting is a three-day academic and professional conference with a mix of high quality, peer-reviewed oral presentations, posters and workshops and ample opportunity for networking. Two keynote lectures will be delivered by Professor Kate Hunt (the Cochrane Lecture) and Professor Mel Bartley (the Pemberton Lecture). Oral presentations run in parallel and are organised by topics, including Health Inequalities, Health Services Research, Lifecourse, Neighbourhoods & Communities, Mental Health & Wellbeing.

The overall aim of this EU project was to contribute to halting the rise of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents by 2020. JANPA stands for “Joint Action on Nutrition and Physical Activity”.

Considerable work has been done on the healthcare costs of adult obesity. Impacts of childhood obesity, however, are rarely included in such obesity costing studies. More work was necessary to understand the impacts of childhood obesity as well as exploring non-healthcare (societal) costs in more detail. JANPA Work Package 4 starts to fill this gap by “developing the evidence-based economic rationale for action on childhood obesity”.

The technical objectives of Work Package 4 are:

to describe the lifetime impact and cost of childhood obesity

to assess the benefits of reducing childhood obesity by 1% and 5%.

This was attempted in seven European countries.

Professor Kevin Balanda (kevin.balanda@publichealth.ie) led JANP WP4. The JANPA WP4 costing model was implemented in an adaptation of the UKHF’s existing software.

JANPA WP4 was a very challenging project and its final deliverables are now available. In particular, final figures for Ireland and Northern Ireland are presented in Deliverable D4.6.

The Association for the Study of Obesity on the island of Ireland (ASOI) has successfully changed the word for obesity in the Irish language. ‘Otracht’ was previously the Irish term for obesity. The English translation of ‘otracht’ is critical, negative and derogatory.

“Language is important. The words we choose matter” says Dr Jean O’Connell, Chair of ASOI. “People living with certain stigmatised diseases say that coping with the stigma of the disease is harder than coping with the disease itself. We need to change the way that we talk about overweight and obesity, in every language”.

Niamh Arthurs (Public Health and Clinical Nutritionist, ASOI Education role) addressed this concern with Foras Na Gaeilge. They advised Ms Arthurs to bring the case to the translation section of the Oireachtas in Leinster House. Following discussion, they informed the ASOI that the word ‘murtall’ will be used instead of ‘otracht’ in legislation in Ireland and they will also advise European institutions to use the term ‘murtall’ in future. Foras Na Gaeilge also stated that they would recommend general use of the term ‘murtall’.

Ireland’s survival rates for cancer patients have improved significantly – latest figures published by The Lancet

Public Health Alcohol Bill to return to the Oireachtas this week

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris has stressed the importance of taking steps, as a society, to prevent cancer. The Minister was marking World Cancer Day, which takes place every year on the 4th of February.

Minister Harris said “Ireland is making significant strides in cancer control. The latest figures published by The Lancet confirm we are moving up the global rankings and cancer survival rates here have improved significantly. Five-year survival rates for cancer have improved from 44.2% (1994-1998) to 61.1% (2010-2014).

“The National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 aims to ensure that survival rates in Ireland continue to improve and that, over the lifetime of this Strategy, Irish survival rates will reach the top quartile in Europe. In achieving this we must also ensure that our services meet the needs of those living with and beyond cancer, from diagnosis and treatment to psycho-social support post-treatment. I am delighted to see a focus on improving the quality of life for cancer survivors through World Cancer Day”

The Wellbeing of the Nation 2017

The number of healthy life years one can expect to experience has increased from 66.9 in 2014 to 67.3 in 2015

The unemployment rate has fallen from 9.8% in 2015 to 8.6% in 2016

Participation in sport among those aged 15 years and older has fallen from 47.2% in 2013 to 45% in 2015

The CSO has today (10th January 2018) published The Wellbeing of the Nation. This new publication attempts to address the question how do people feel about their lives as a whole.

Commenting on the data, Statistician Damien Lenihan said: “This publication attempts to measure wellbeing, which is influenced by many factors including the economic conditions of the country, the health of its population, and the educational attainment of its people”.With over 30 indicators across eight areas of society, the key findings of the publication include;

Average household debt has fallen from €93,900 in 2014 to €87,900 in 2015

The percentage of those aged 25 to 64 with third level education has remained constant at 41% between the years 2015 and 2016

The number of homeless people, as measured on Census night increased by 81% between 2011 and 2016 from 3,808 to 6,906 persons

The percentage of adults that think crime is a very serious problem in Ireland has increased from 46% in 2006 to 49% in 2010

Commenting further, Damien Lenihan said: “This publication is a starting point in measuring wellbeing and is an area which will be expanded further in the coming years”.

Cancer in Ireland 1994 - 2015 with estimates for 2015 - 2017: Annual Report of the National Cancer Registry

The National Cancer Registry of Ireland has released its 22nd annual statistical report. This report summarises cancer incidence, mortality and survival in Ireland for the period 1994-2015, and provides projected estimates for incidence for the most recent three-year period: 2015-2017. The cumulative lifetime risk (to age 75 years) of an invasive cancer diagnosis was approximately 1 in 3 for men and 1 in 4 for women. The absolute risk difference between the most and least deprived 20% of the population was highest for pancreatic (+14%), lung (+9%), colon (+8%), oesophageal (+8%), and ovarian cancers (+7%). Age-standardized rates of all invasive cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC)) were 26% higher in men than in women. Overall, taking the first recorded invasive cancer (exc. NMSC) for each patient, the proportion of cases presenting as an emergency was 15% (of all cases whose admission type was known). The cancers with the highest proportion of emergency presentation were: pancreas (34%), lung (26%), ovary (24%) and colon (22%). For all cancer types, patients resident in the most deprived areas were more likely to present as an emergency. For all cancers examined, relative differences by deprivation were substantial, with patients from the most deprived group 25%-67% more likely to present as emergencies, depending on the cancer type (54% for all cancers combined). Similar data on cancer in Northern Ireland is available here.